Discuss about the Culture of 3M Company.
3M Company is a major multinational conglomerate corporation of United States of America. The former name of the company was Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Company. The company was founded in 13 June 1902. 3M Company is considered as one of the major global innovation company (3m.com, 2017). 3M Company has a large variety of products that include adhesive, abrasives, laminates, passive fire protection, personal protective equipments, dental and orthoclase products, various electronic materials, medical products, car-care products, electronic circuit and many others (3m.com, 2017). 3M Company is well-known all over the world for their continuous thrust for innovation and invention. For this reason, with the help of their innovative products, 3M Company has been able to change daily life of threads of people. It can be seen that 3M Company is driven by some specific values that provide the company with necessary direction (3m.com, 2017).
As per the values, 3M Company maintains honesty and integrity in all of their business operations (3m.com, 2017). 3M Company always tries to fulfill the demands of their customers with innovative technology and superior quality of products that have the ability to add value to their customers. In the year 2015, 3M Company had global sales of $30.2 billion that includes the sales of America worth $18.23 billion (3m.com, 2017). The company has its business operations spread over 70 countries and the products of 3M Company are sold over 200 countries around the globe (3m.com, 2017). 3M Company has an employee base of 89,446 all over the world. Innovation and invention can be seen in the business environment of the company (3m.com, 2017). The main objective of the company is to satisfy the needs of their customers with the help of quality products and high level of technology.
The focus of this part is to evaluate the business practices that make 3M Company a learning organization. As per the above discussion, 3M Company believes in innovation and inventions. With the help of some major practices, 3M Company has been able to develop learning environment in their organization (hbr.org, 2017). 3M Company provides their employees with the opportunity to pursue their chances. For this reason, 3M Company arranges various kinds of forums and centers that help their employees to take full advantage of their opportunities and provides them with all necessary resources. Apart from this, the employees of 3M Company attend different kinds of technical council so that their technical abilities can be developed and increased (victorhrconsultant.com, 2017). According to 3M Company, performance of the employees is the main success factor of the company. For this reason, 3M Company has adopted the strategy to provide the employee with bonus as per their performance of the employees. In 3M Company, scientists are provided with the same respect, compensation and prestige like the corporate managers.
As per the policy of the company, the scientists can get the promotions without becoming managers. The performance measurement and reward system of 3M Company tolerates the mistakes of their employees and encourages them. 3M Company uses to honor top three scientists who develop the most innovative product and they are awarded with cash price (news.3m.com, 2017). 3M Company tells the stories of famous failures to their employees so that they can learn from those mistakes and this is one of the major strategies of 3M Company to retain innovation in their business culture. 3M Company has an effective research and development unit for the invention of innovative products. This research and development department has significant contribution to develop new industries for the company (linkedin.com, 2017).
In order to analyze the cultural aspects of 3M Company, two of the major theoretical framework has been taken into consideration and they are Schein Model and Hofstede Dimensions. Both the theories have their own importance for the analysis and evaluation of business culture of the companies.
Schein Model: As per the Schein Model, organizational culture has three layers. They are Artifacts and Behaviors, Espoused Values and Assumptions (Zohar & Hofmann, 2012).
Figure 1: Schein Model
(Source: Hogan & Coote, 2014)
Hofstede Dimensions: According to Hofstede model, there are six dimensions of culture. They are Power Distance, Individualism vs. Collectivism, Masculinity vs. Femininity, Uncertainty Avoidance, Pragmatic vs. Normative and Indulgence vs. Restraint (Minkov & Hofstede, 2012).
Figure 2: Hofstede Dimensions
(Source: Taras, Steel & Kirkman, 2012)
The step or dimension of Schein model is artifacts that are visible elements of the companies like logo, architecture, structure, process and others. At the same time, the first three dimensions of Hofstede model are similar to the first step of Schein model. The second step in Schein model is espoused values that are organizational standards, values, rules, regulations and others. This step is similar with the last two dimensions of Hofsted model. The third step of Schein model is assumptions that have similarity with the fourth dimension of Hofstede’s model.
It can be seen hat Schein model covers all the dimensions of Hofsted’s model. Apart from this, there are only three dimensions or layer in Schein model and for this reason; this process is less complicated than Hofsted’s model. In case of Schein model, it is possible to analyze all the cultural factors of the companies with the help of three layers while companies need to use six factors for cultural analysis in case of Hofsted’s model (Gray & Massimino, 2014). Thus, it is more appropriate to analyze the culture of 3M Company with the help of Schein Model.
Organization culture refers to certain values and believes of the organizations. Organizational culture consists of certain principles, ideologies and policies. The organizational culture directs the employees how to behave with the people inside and outside the organizations. In the year 1980, American management professor Edgar Schein introduced a model that is helpful to analyze and evaluate the organizational culture. Edgar Schein believed that it is not possible for the business organizations to adopt the culture in one day. The employees of the organizations have to go through various changes and they have to adopt the organizational cultures. In addition, the new employees have to try hard in order to adjust with the organizational culture. According to Edgar Schein, there are three major levels in the organizational culture (Mihaela & Bratianu, 2012). They are Artifacts and Behaviours, Espoused Values and Assumptions. All three aspects are discussed below:
Artifacts: Artifacts refers to the surface of the organizations. On a more precise note, artifacts can be referred as the visible objectives of the organizations like physical environment, language, technological products, style, clothing, rituals and others. Among all these aspects, climate is considered as the artifacts of the organizations. As per most of the culturists, climate of the organizations can be considered as the culture. Observed behaviour of the employees can also be considered as the artifacts of the companies. Apart from this, various structural elements like formal descriptions of the organizational working process, organizational charts and others come under the category of artifacts. The most important characteristics of artifacts are that they are easy to observe and difficult to convert into normal languages. Apart from the organizational people, all these aspects are visible by the external parties of the organization. With the help of deep observations, these artifacts become clearer (Schaubroeck et al., 2012).
Espoused Values: Espoused values refer to the standards, values, rules and code of conducts of the business organizations. This is the next level in the Schein model. Schein believed that the value of the employees help to develop the culture of the business organizations. Thus, the value of each employee has a significant role to play in constituting the organizational culture. The attitudes and thought process of the organizational employees have a major impact on the organizational cultural aspects. The organizational cultured is developed based on the modest of the employees. Thus, it can be said that espoused values can be referred as the ideology and philosophy of the companies. Only organizational people can see and feel them. The outsides are not able to see and feel the espoused values of the business organizations. Espoused values have utmost importance for the analysis of organizational cultures (Hogan & Coote, 2014).
Assumptions: This is the third step of Schein’s model. This level is considered as assumed values of the organizations that cannot be measured, but they have major impacts on the culture of the organizations. In the business organizations, some values and beliefs are there that stays hidden but have significant importance on the culture of the organizations. The main aim of this part is to analyze the inner aspect of the human nature in the organizations. These assumptions are considered as the foundation of organizational culture. The underlying assumptions of the organizations are hard to describe and they are intangible in nature. As these assumptions are invisible in nature, they are not written in any of the documents of the companies. It can be seen that organizational people do not want to talk about these assumption but they have to comply with these assumptions while working in the organizations. Thus, it can be said that assumptions are one of the major components of organizational culture (Mihaela & Bratianu, 2012).
From the above analysis, it can be seen that there are three major factors in Schein Model; they are Artefacts, Espoused values and Assumptions. These three aspects are the most crucial factors are Schein model as they massively help in the analysis of organizational culture. There is not any exception of this fact in case of 3M Company. For the analysis and evaluation of organisational culture of 3M Company, the assistance of Schein Model is required. Various cultural aspects of the company need to be divided among these aspects of Schein Model so that effective analysis can be done (news.3m.com, 2017). The analysis of practice, issues, events and sub units of 3M Company is shown below based on Schein framework.
Norms are considered as the crucial factors in the principles and standards of the companies. Norms refer to the informal guidelines of the organizations that guide the behaviour of the employees in the organizations. Norms have their importance in the development collection expectations among the members or employees of the business organizations (Dauber, Fink & Yolles, 2012). In a shorter note, norms can be considered as the way to do things in the organizations. From this analysis, the importance of norms in the business organizations can be understood. According to Schein Model, norms are the artefacts of the organizations that the outside people can see. The norms of 3M are the integral part of the organizational culture. According to the norms of the company, the employees of the company need to act with honesty and integrity. As per the norms of the company, the culture of 3M has build on satisfying the needs of the customers with the help of technology and quality products. 3M is always ready for the development of their employees with the help of various talent development programs. These are the major norms of 3M and they are the major parts of its culture (Fink, Dauber & Yolles, 2012). From the above discussion, it can be said that norms have an important role to play in making 3M a learning organization. The management of the company has been successful to develop collaboration among various departments in the organizations. As a result, the employees have become able to learn from different business units of the company.
Another major aspect of artefacts is the rites and ceremonies of the organizational culture. Rites and ceremonies refer to the integral part of the business organizations as they contribute hugely towards the operating procedures of the companies. In addition, rites and ceremonies have symbolic connection with the values and ethic of the companies. Different types of rites and ceremonies are the major part of the organizational culture of 3M. These rites and ceremonies include various recognition ceremonies, annual off-site conferences, Christmas parties, employee welcome parties, retirement parties and others (Baumgartner, 2012). All the rites and ceremonies make the employees enthusiastic to their works. Rites and ceremonies play an important role to make 3M a learning organization. In the daily lives of the employees, these rites and ceremonies bring happiness. It can be seen that as a part of the rites and ceremonies, 3M rewards their employees. This is a major performance booster for the employees of the company. As the employees are rewarded in front of everyone, their thrust for leering becomes higher. It helps 3M to become a learning organization. Apart from these, there are many artefacts factors in the cultures of 3M. They are the logo of the company, building and infrastructure of the company, various machineries and equipments of the company and others. All these factors have deep impact on the culture of the companies. As per Schein model, these factors have great impact on the cultures of the companies. Thus, at the time of analysing the organizational culture, all these aspects need to be taken into consideration (Maximini, 2015).
According to Schein Model, espoused values and beliefs refer to the code of conducts, rules, regulations, principles and standards of the organizations and the people outside the organizations are not able to see all the values and beliefs. Trust can be considered as important factors in the aspects of espoused values and beliefs. Trust is a major component of organizational culture. Trust helps to build respect and loyalty among the people of the organizations (Gimenez-Espin, Jiménez-Jiménez & Martínez-Costa, 2013). As per the analysis of Schein model, it can be seen that 3M has a high trust workplace culture. 3M gets major benefits from the trust factors in the organizational as the company is getting some major tangible benefits from it. As there is trust among the employees of the company across all departments, they use to share valuable information among them. As a result of this, the employee of a particular department can now the work procedures of another department. This process helps them to learn multitasks. This is a major way of learning in the company. Apart from this, 3M has been able to create a cordial work place in the organization. With the help of trust factors in the organization, 3M has been able to implement the strategy of shared vision in the workplace. In the presence of trust factors in the organization, the employees of 3M have become able to build understanding and commitment among themselves that provides massive benefits to the company. Due to the presence of trust factors in the workplace, the employees of the company feel themselves as valuable and they become more enthusiastic in the learning process. As the employees, make difference in the workplace, the organizations start to value them.
Efforts refer to the attempt of the organizations in order to do good of the companies like effort to implement a strategy, effort to better the financial performance of the company and others. Thus, it can be said that the organizations need to put efforts for the performance development. This same theory is also applicable in case of 3M. It can be seen that 3M has been putting some major efforts in order to strengthen the technological capabilities of the company and to improve the business portfolio and cost structure of the company. As per the recent year’s strategy of the company, 3M is putting efforts to increase the amount of investment for the growth opportunities (Taylor, 2014). Individual efforts of the employees help them to learn many important aspects apart from their own business units. This is a major progress for the company and this process helps 3M to become a learning organization.
Apart from trust and effort, some other cultural values and beliefs are there in 3M. According to the culture of the company, the brand of the companies should be reflected from the culture of the organizations. Over the years, 3M has been celebrating, encouraging and retaining the most relevant parts of their business culture. At the same time, 3M is continuously developing the ways to make the organizational culture more effective and relevant. In 3M, the employees are provided with the opportunities to increase their potentials and to become more effective. In this process, 3M provides all the necessary resources to them. Thus, it can be seen that 3M is always ready to take efforts in order to make the organizational people more effective. This is one of the major characteristics of their business culture. All these aspects together have been successful to make 3M a learning organization where the employees are always provided with the opportunity to develop themselves (Korte & Lin, 2013).
Assumptions refer to the underlying facts of the organizational that are deeply embedded with the organizational cultures. From the cultural analysis of 3M, some basic assumptions can be made. As per the above discussions, it can be said that some of the major business practices of 3M have made the company as the learning organization. From the above discussion, it can be assumed that 3M has been successful to implement the concept of system thinking in the organization. As a result, the organizational people of 3M have been able to see interrelations and patterns of the organizational changes (Conole, 2012). In addition, with the help of organizational culture, the employees of the company have developed personal mastery. With the help of personal mastery, the 3M employees are able to increase their abilities to create their desired results (Maden, 2012). Another major assumption is the development of team learning mentality among the employees of the company. There is a positive interrelation between team learning and personal mastery as both team learning develops on the principles and standards of personal mastery. Team learning is an important factor for the business success of 3M (Parmelee et al., 2012).
Conclusion
The main objective of this report is to analyze and evaluate the business practices of 3M Company that make it a learning organization. For the analysis of business practices, two learning models are taken into consideration. They are Schein Model and Hofstede Dimension Model. Schein model has three dimensions while Hofstede Model has six dimensions. After the analysis of both the models, it has been concluded that Schein model is more appropriate than Hofstede model for the analysis of organizational culture of 3M. The three dimensions of Schein model covers all the six dimensions of Hofstetde model. There are three major dimensions in Schein model; they are Artefacts, Espoused values and Assumptions. There are some specific artefacts in the organizations. The employees of the organization have to comply with the norms and standards and the employees act with honesty and integrity for these rules and regulations. In addition, 3M has several major rites and ceremonies in the organization like Christmas parties, conferences, employee recognition programs and others. All these rites and ceremonies play important part in developing enthusiasm within the employees towards their jobs. These are the major artefacts of the company. Various codes of conducts, principles, regulations are others are seen as the espoused values. Trust and efforts are two of the major factors of espoused values and believes of the company. In the third part of the model, some assumptions are provided. It is assumed that the company has been successful for the development of some major aspects like system thinking, team learning, share vision and personal mastery.
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